MOUNTAIN VIEW — Google could be slapped with a new tax in its home town of Mountain View under a plan that is being eyed by municipal officials that’s due to be debated by council members this week.
A series of models are being contemplated by Mountain View officials, including one that could impose a tax of as much as $5.5 million a year on the largest employers in Mountain View, according to materials being prepared for a city council subcommittee meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
“The purpose is to generate a substantial amount of revenue for long term community needs, primarily expensive transportation projects to improve the quality of life for residents and employees working in Mountain View,” Mountain View City Manager Dan Rich stated in comments emailed to this news organization.
Mountain View’s largest employers is a group certainly headed by Google, a search giant owned by Alphabet, and the city’s largest private employer. Other big employers in Mountain View include Intuit, Symantec, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Samsung, Synopsys, Pure Storage and Kaiser Permanente, a city staff report stated.
“The subcommittee has directed staff to return with three new revenue models each with revenue targets of $5 million and $10 million,” according to a staff report prepared for the subcommittee.
The new taxes would be collected through a restructuring of Mountain View’s business license tax.
Under scenarios that feature a target of generating $5 million a year in revenue, the largest employers in Mountain View could expect to pay $2.2 million a year.
Options that seek $10 million a year in revenue would likely produce a tax of $5.4 million on the largest employers in Mountain View.
The restructured taxes could be based on an employer’s worker headcount in Mountain View.
The proposals would likely wind up on the November ballot.
A poll that Mountain View conducted in March based on 1,365 telephone and online surveys of voters in the city was used by municipal officials to gauge voter attitudes about the new taxes.
“Two-thirds of voters say they would vote ‘yes’ on a general purpose employer tax, although support for the measure is soft,” according to a draft report prepared for city officials by FM3 Research, which conducted the poll.
Feedback from employers in Mountain View said a city tax could prompt them to shift operations outside of the South Bay city, or curb their expansion efforts.
“It is worth noting that 82 percent of our businesses have fewer than 10 employees and 96 percent have fewer than 50 employees,” Rich said. “We have done considerable outreach to the business community, including meetings specifically with Google and other large companies. Google had not commented officially on the proposals being circulated. Other companies have expressed some concerns about the potential impact on growth and location decisions.”
Seattle-based Amazon has suspended plans for a new office pending the outcome of negotiations with municipal officials for an employee headcount tax in that city.
Mountain View officials maintain that the higher taxes won’t damage the city’s economy, especially if a portion of the revenue raised might alleviate some of the city’s traffic woes.
“We believe enhanced transportation and other improvement to infrastructure and community needs will make Mountain View a better place to live and work,” Rich said.